A New Space Age

Founding sponsor

Gold sponsor

Exhibitor

Communications agency

Overview

Space is revolutionising the way people think about the Earth. New capabilities, rekindled dreams and an atmosphere of entrepreneurialism mean a new wave of terrestrial tech has forged a well-worn path now profitably travelled.

‘Big data’ have transformed the planet into a gigantic set of data that can be both interrogated and extrapolated, transforming the way industries as diverse as farming and insurance operate. Space travel is moving from the world of government procurement and aerospace engineering giants to venture-capital-funded start-ups that rely on ever-cheaper services for ever more customers. As they prove to be profitable they will grow further, and fast.

Yet most of the money being spent in space remains with old government programmes and incumbent telecom providers. We will delve into the financial reality behind the hype: over the next few years where the industry will go, and what’s the real potential and unexpected opportunities for business on earth to move beyond our planet.

The Economist Event's inaugural global Space Summit focuses on the future of human space exploration. It will gather chief executives, thinkers, policymakers and disruptive entrepreneurs from all over the world to debate what technological advances will further progress in space. How can space technology help manage disasters and conflicts? And what future challenges are in store for the exploration of space?

Join us to realise untapped business and economics opportunities within the industry.

Why attend

Discussion topics:

Future gazing: what will Elon Musk see from his deathbed 50 years from now?

Public policy: exploring the global ethics of space

Space junk: who can profit from being space’s debris collector?

Join us and you will:

Network with more than 200 leaders from finance, aerospace, venture capital, science, start-ups, telecommunications, academia, military, and government

Hear from those at the forefront of the space age and the key disruptors in space technology with the potential to make a big impact on the Earth’s economy

Speakers

Yuri Milner

Founder, DST Global

Yuri Milner

Founder, DST Global

Yuri founded Mail.ru Group in 1999 and under his leadership it became one of Europe’s leading internet companies. He took that business public in 2010 and founded DST Global to focus on global internet investments. DST Global became one of the world’s leading technology investors and its portfolio has included some of the world's most prominent internet companies, such as Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Snapchat, Airbnb, Spotify, Alibaba, and others. Yuri lives in Silicon Valley with his family.

Yuri graduated in 1985 with an advanced degree in theoretical physics and subsequently conducted research in quantum field theory. Yuri and his wife Julia, together with Sergey Brin and Anne Wojcicki, Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, launched the Breakthrough Prizes - the world’s largest scientific awards, honoring important, primarily recent, achievements in Fundamental Physics, Life Sciences and Mathematics. In July 2015, together with Stephen Hawking, Yuri launched the $100 million Breakthrough Listen initiative to reinvigorate the search for extraterrestrial intelligence in the Universe, and in April 2016 they launched Breakthrough Starshot - a $100 million research and engineering program seeking to develop a technology for interstellar travel.

George Whitesides

Chief executive, Virgin Galactic and The Spaceship Company

George Whitesides

Chief executive, Virgin Galactic and The Spaceship Company

George T. Whitesides is the chief executive of Virgin Galactic, Sir Richard Branson’s human spaceflight venture, and The Spaceship Company, a manufacturer of advanced space vehicles. With its innovative spacecraft, the company seeks to transform access to space to change the world for good.

Prior to Virgin Galactic, George served as chief of staff for NASA. Upon departure from the American space agency, he received the Distinguished Service Medal, the highest award the agency confers.

George serves as co-chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Space Technologies. He is a member of Caltech’s Space Innovation Council and Princeton University’s Advisory Council for Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. He is a fellow of the UK Royal Aeronautical Society and an associate fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

He previously chaired the Reusable Launch Vehicle Working Group for the FAA’s Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee, and served on the board of trustees of Princeton University and the board of Virgin Unite USA.

George has testified on American space policy before the United States Senate, the United States House of Representatives, and the President’s Commission on Implementation of United States Space Exploration Policy.

An honors graduate of Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School, George later earned a master’s degree in geographic information systems and remote sensing from the University of Cambridge, and a Fulbright Scholarship to Tunisia. George is a licensed private pilot and certified parabolic flight coach.

He resides in Lancaster, California with his wife Loretta and two children.

Lori B. Garver

General manager, Air Line Pilots Association, and former deputy administrator, NASA

Lori B. Garver

General manager, Air Line Pilots Association, and former deputy administrator, NASA

Lori Garver serves as the general manager of the Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l. ALPA is the largest airline pilot union in the world and represents more than 52,000 pilots at 30 U.S. and Canadian airlines. Ms. Garver is responsible for the business operations of the Association, including: strategic planning and project management; ALPA’s finances, budgets, investments, administration and information technology; mergers and organizing; member benefits; and personnel management. She oversees the professional activities performed by ALPA employees in the areas of collective bargaining, contract administration, organizing, air safety, communications, association administration, law and litigation, and government relations.

Prior to joining ALPA, Ms. Garver served as the deputy administrator of NASA, from 2009 – 2013. Her efforts at NASA focused on advancing U.S. aeronautics and space activities through technology development, partnerships and innovation. This was her second time serving at NASA, having previously served in a number of positions from 1996 – 2001.

Other public roles have included being the lead civil space policy advisor to Mr. Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign and the head of his transition team for NASA. She also served as the lead space policy advisor for the Hillary Clinton and John Kerry presidential campaigns. Throughout her career she has held a variety of senior positions in government, non-profit and commercial sectors.

Ms. Garver is a member of the board of directors of MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA), a global communications and information company, and on the Commercial board of advisors of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR).

Ms. Garver earned a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Economics from Colorado College and a master’s degree in Science, Technology and Public Policy from George Washington University.

Steve Jurvetson

Partner, Draper Fisher Jurvetson

Steve Jurvetson

Partner, Draper Fisher Jurvetson

Steve Jurvetson has a reputation for investing in pioneering companies that create new sectors. Two early bets include Elon Musk-led companies, Tesla (Jurvetson owns its first sedan and second SUV) and SpaceX. Jurvetson holds board seats at both companies. He also serves on the Board of Directors for Planet, a company that has launched the largest constellation of Earth-observation micro-satellites, D-Wave, a quantum computing company which counts Google, NASA and Lockheed-Martin as customers, and Mythic, a provider of a local AI hardware and software platform that turns devices into secure and trusted intelligent assistants. He previously held a board seat at deep learning company Nervana, acquired by Intel in 2016. He completed his undergraduate degree at Stanford in electrical engineering in two-and-a-half-years, and became a name partner at DFJ within six months of joining. Jurvetson maintains a fascination for space and has turned DFJ's office into a museum showcasing his space artifact collection.

Carissa Bryce Christensen

Founder and chief executive, Bryce Space and Technology

Carissa Bryce Christensen

Founder and chief executive, Bryce Space and Technology

Carissa Bryce Christensen is the founder and chief executive of Bryce Space and Technology. She previously co-founded The Tauri Group, LLC and was a partner in CenTauri Solutions, LLC (acquired by CSC in 2010). Ms. Christensen is an internationally recognized expert in commercial space. For over two decades she has engaged the leading edge of the space industry with innovative analysis of space systems and advanced technology. She led the creation of widely used financial and economic indicators now considered global metrics for the commercial space and satellite sectors.

A frequent speaker and author on space and satellite trends, Ms. Christensen serves as a strategic advisor to government and commercial clients, and has been an expert witness and testified before Congress on market dynamics. She is an active investor in technology-focused startups and advises several companies she has helped seed. She serves on the board of QxBranch, an early stage quantum computing software firm in which she is a partner.

Ms. Christensen holds a Master of Public Policy degree from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, where she specialized in science and technology policy. She also completed the General Course in Government at the London School of Economics and was a Douglass Scholar at Rutgers University.

Ms. Christensen is an associate fellow of The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Association.

Chris Lewicki

President and chief executive, Planetary Resources

Chris Lewicki

President and chief executive, Planetary Resources

Mr. Lewicki has been intimately involved with the lifecycle of NASA’s Mars Exploration Rovers and the Phoenix Mars Lander.

Lewicki performed system engineering development and participated in assembly, test and launch operations for both Mars missions. He was flight director for the rovers Spirit and Opportunity, and the surface mission manager for Phoenix. The recipient of two NASA Exceptional Achievement Medals, Lewicki has an asteroid named in his honor: 13609 Lewicki. Chris holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Arizona.

At Planetary Resources, Mr. Lewicki is responsible for the strategic development of the company’s mission and vision, engagement with customers and the scientific community, serves as technical compass, and leads day to day operations.

Naveen Jain

Founder and chairman, Moon Express

Naveen Jain

Founder and chairman, Moon Express

Naveen Jain is an entrepreneur and philanthropist driven to solve the world’s biggest challenges and epidemics through innovation. His passion lies in discovering the newest technologies and turning them into successful businesses that will have a global impact and help improve the lives of millions.

To date, he has founded several companies which are revolutionizing the science, technology and medicine arenas. They include Bluedot, Moon Express, Viome, Intelius, Talent Wise and InfoSpace. 2017 is a big year for two of Naveen’s companies; Moon Express and Viome.

Moon Express is the first and only private entity to receive permission from the US government to leave earth’s orbit and land on the moon. This year they will complete their maiden lunar voyage. Viome will launch in 2017 and is focused on disrupting healthcare by “making illness optional.”

Naveen is known for his entrepreneurial spirit and believes that it is entrepreneurs who will catapult our industries forward. He is a trustee of the board and vision circle member at the XPRIZE Foundation where he is focused on finding entrepreneurial solutions to address the biggest global challenges in health, education, women empowerment, agriculture, and energy. He recently launched a million-dollar Women Safety XPRIZE to empower women around the world.

In addition, Naveen is also on the board of Singularity University and has been awarded many honors for his accomplishments and entrepreneurial successes.

Peter Platzer

Chief executive, Spire

Peter Platzer

Chief executive, Spire

Peter Platzer co-founded Spire in 2012 with a vision to provide high frequency/high accuracy satellite-powered data from anywhere on earth. While Platzer is regarded as a pioneer in launching small form factor satellites into space, he is also known for his visionary leadership and was named a White House Champion of Change in 2013. Prior to launching Spire, Platzer trained at CERN, Max Planck Institute, interned at NASA Ames’ Space Portal, and was awarded an MSS from the International Space University, an MS in Physics from the Technical University of Vienna and an MBA from Harvard.

Susmita Mohanty

Co-founder and chief executive, Earth2Orbit

Susmita Mohanty

Co-founder and chief executive, Earth2Orbit

Susmita Mohanty is a spaceship designer and serial space entrepreneur. She is the cofounder and chief executive of EARTH2ORBIT, India’s first private space start-up. She has cofounded and led two other companies, MOONFRONT in San Francisco [2001-2007] and LIQUIFER in Vienna [2004-ongoing].

Before turning entrepreneur, Susmita worked in business development for the International Space Station program at Boeing in California. She also worked on Shuttle-Mir missions at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Since 1998, Susmita has worked with the Americans, Japanese, Europeans, Russians and Indians in various capacities, as employee, consultant, contractor, entrepreneur and advisor.

In 2005, Susmita was honored on Capitol Hill [Washington DC] with the International Achievement Award for promoting international cooperation through entrepreneurial space ventures. In 2012, she was voted into Financial Times’ list of “25 Indians to Watch”. In 2016, she was nominated to the World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Future Council for Space Technologies.

Educated in India, France, and Sweden, Susmita holds multiple degrees including a PhD.

Dirk Hoke

Chief executive, Airbus Defence and Space

Dirk Hoke

Chief executive, Airbus Defence and Space

Dirk Hoke is chief executive of Airbus Defence and Space since 1 April 2016. He joined the company three months earlier as deputy chief executive. He is a member of the Airbus Group Executive Committee.

Dirk Hoke joined Airbus Group from Siemens, where he has been chief executive of the Large Drives Business Unit since 2014. He has held various executive-level positions at Siemens since becoming the chief executive of the Cluster Western & Central Africa in 2008. His career spans 21 years and five continents.

In 1994, Dirk Hoke began his professional career as R&D Engineer for process and software analysis in the automotive industry at Renault in Paris. In 1996, he joined Siemens through an international trainee programme with assignments in Germany, Argentina and Austria. He then held various management posts in the Transportation Systems Division based in Germany. He relocated to Sacramento, USA, as the head of the Transportation Systems restructuring team in 2001.

Dirk Hoke continued his professional career at Siemens as general manager for the Transrapid Propulsion and Power Supply Subdivision from 2002 to 2005 including the Shanghai “Maglev” project. He was then promoted to president of Siemens Transportation Systems China and made Siemens the largest foreign railway supplier in the country.

In 2008, Dirk Hoke moved to Morocco to lead Siemens’ Africa activities. He returned to Germany in 2011 to become the division chief executive of Industrial Solutions with the special task to build up the services business for the Industry Sector. Afterwards, he was called upon to restructure the Large Drives Business Unit.

Dirk Hoke holds a degree in mechanical engineering from the Technical University of Brunswick, Germany. In 2010, Dirk Hoke became a member of the Young Global Leader Class of the World Economic Forum and, in 2013 a member of the Baden Baden Entrepreneur Talks.

Born in April 1969, Dirk Hoke is married with two children.

Nobu Okada

Founder and chief executive, Astroscale

Nobu Okada

Founder and chief executive, Astroscale

Nobu Okada founded ASTROSCALE in Singapore in 2013 due to a strong desire to address the growing threat of space debris. He used his personal funds as seed money and hired a team in Singapore and Tokyo while raising capital for the business. The team calls themselves, “Space Sweepers” and their mission is to secure space flight safety by incubating space debris removal technologies.

Mr. Okada serves as a member of the Subcommittee on Space Civil Use and Space Industry at the Cabinet Office for the Government of Japan, and is also a member of The Future of Space Technologies Council, World Economic Forum, and International Astronautical Federation.

Prior to ASTROSCALE, Mr. Okada was a Japanese IT entrepreneur and strategy consultant, and had managed IT companies in Japan, China, India and Singapore. He led one company to a successful IPO. Before joining the IT industry, he worked for McKinsey & Company and the Japanese Government in the Ministry of Finance. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Genetics from the University of Tokyo in 1995 and an MBA from the Krannert School of Business, Purdue University in 2001.

When he was a teenager, Mr. Okada attended a camp at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in the United States where he met Japan’s first astronaut, Mr. Mamoru Mohri. He received the handwritten message, “Space is where you will thrive.” and he has been inspired to work on space ever since.

Chad Anderson

Chief executive, Space Angels and managing partner, Space Capital

Chad Anderson

Chief executive, Space Angels and managing partner, Space Capital

Chad Anderson is chief executive of Space Angels and managing partner of Space Capital, together the world’s leading source of capital for entrepreneurial space ventures. He also serves on several boards, including the UK Space Catapult's, where he supports the national strategy to grow the space sector in the country.

Prior to his current roles, Mr Anderson enjoyed a successful career at JP Morgan Chase where he managed a $50bn real estate portfolio through the Great Recession. Anderson holds an MBA from the University of Oxford, with a focus on entrepreneurship and innovation.

Brian Weeden

Director of program planning, Secure World Foundation

Brian Weeden

Director of program planning, Secure World Foundation

Dr. Brian Weeden is the director of program planning for Secure World Foundation and has 17 years of professional experience in space operations and policy.

Dr. Weeden directs strategic planning for future-year projects to meet the Foundation's goals and objectives, and conducts research on space debris, global space situational awareness, space traffic management, protection of space assets, and space governance. Dr. Weeden also organizes national and international workshops to increase awareness of and facilitate dialogue on space security, stability, and sustainability topics. He is a member and former chair of the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on Space, and is also a member of the Advisory Committee on Commercial Remote Sensing (ACCRES) to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Prior to joining SWF, Dr. Weeden served nine years on active duty as an officer in the United States Air Force working in space and intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) operations. As part of U.S. Strategic Command's Joint Space Operations Center (JSpOC), Dr. Weeden directed the orbital analyst training program and developed tactics, techniques and procedures for improving space situational awareness.

John Logsdon

Founder, George Washington University’s Space Policy Institute

John Logsdon

Founder, George Washington University’s Space Policy Institute

Dr. Logsdon is professor emeritus of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, where he was on the active faculty for 38 years. He was the founder in 1987 and long-time director of GW’s Space Policy Institute. He has also been a faculty member of the International Space University since 1989. He holds a B.S. in Physics from Xavier University (1960) and a Ph.D. in Political Science from New York University (1970). Dr. Logsdon’s research interests focus on the policy and historical aspects of U.S. and international space activities. He is author of the award winning books After Apollo? Richard Nixon and the American Space Program (2015) and John F. Kennedy and the Race to the Moon (2010). and is general editor of the multi-volume series Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in the History of the U.S. Civil Space Program. He has written numerous articles and reports on space policy and history. He is frequently consulted by the electronic and print media for his views on space issues. He is a member of the board of directors of The Planetary Society and former member of the NASA Advisory Council. In 2008-2009 he held the Lindbergh Chair at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

Jamie Morin

Jamie Morin is the executive director of the Center for Space Policy and Strategy, as well as a vice-president of The Aerospace Corporation. Aerospace is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing technical advice on all aspects of space missions, especially for U.S. national security and civil space agencies. The Center was established to provide trusted, non-advocate perspectives on space policy and strategy, drawing on Aerospace’s deep technical expertise to ensure that space policy decisions are fully informed and well-grounded in fact.

Prior to joining Aerospace, Jamie served for eight years in multiple senior positions with the Department of Defense. Most recently, he was the director of cost assessment and program evaluation, assisting the U.S. Secretary of Defense by creating the Department’s 5 year resource plan, leading independent cost estimates of major acquisition programs and conducting numerous multiple special studies, including two space strategic portfolio reviews. Previously, he served as assistant secretary and chief financial officer for the U.S. Air Force, overseeing a more than $110 billion annual budget. In 2012 and 2013 he simultaneously served as the acting under secretary of the Air Force, the chief management officer for a nearly 700,000-person organization as well as the chair of the Air Force Space Board. Prior to service with the Air Force, he was the senior analyst for the defense and intelligence budgets at the U.S. Senate Budget Committee, and earlier an economist and strategist with an international consulting firm.

Jamie holds degrees from Yale, the London School of Economics, and Georgetown. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and in 2013 was named a “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum.

Amaresh Kollipara

VR producer and SETI Institute board member

Amaresh Kollipara

VR producer and SETI Institute board member

Amaresh Kollipara is a space industry executive with a multidisciplinary background. He recently led an Emmy nominated project at Facebook's virtual reality company Oculus. Called Mission:ISS, this project was conducted in collaboration with NASA and ESA and is a true-to-life simulation of the International Space Station in VR. In addition, he is a co-founder and managing partner of Earth2Orbit, LLC, which is a professional advisory firm with an aerospace industry focus. He strongly feels that the future of commercial space, and the future of humanity's relationship with space, is dependent on the development of useful applications based on space infrastructure.

He currently serves on the board of the SETI Institute and the Space Frontier Foundation. He served as a principal of the Space Angels Network, a professionally managed global network of investors. Amaresh also currently serves as an advisor to C-level executives in the financial services, healthcare, and hi-tech industries.

Saadia Pekkanen

Associate director, Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington

Saadia Pekkanen

Associate director, Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington

Saadia M. Pekkanen works on outer space security, governance, and policy. Her regional expertise is in the international relations of Japan/Asia. She earned Master’s degrees from Columbia University and Yale Law School, and a doctorate from Harvard University in political science. She holds the Job and Gertrud Tamaki Professorship at the University of Washington. She has published a half-dozen books on space technology and geopolitics, and is working now on The Age of Newspace. She serves as Co-Chair of the U.S. Japan Space Forum, and directs both the Space Security Initiative (SSI) and the project on Emerging Frontiers in Newspace. She is a contributor for Forbes on the space industry.

Carolyn Porco

Planetary scientist, Cassini mission

Carolyn Porco

Planetary scientist, Cassini mission

Carolyn Porco is the leader of the imaging science team on the Cassini mission in orbit around Saturn from 2004 to 2017, a veteran imaging scientist of the Voyager mission to the outer solar system in the 1980s, and an associate member of the New Horizons mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt. Carolyn has co-authored over 125 scientific papers on a variety of subjects in astronomy and planetary science and has become a regular public commentator on science, astronomy, planetary exploration, and the intersection of science and religion. Her popular science writings have appeared in such distinguished publications as the London Sunday Times, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Guardian, Astronomy magazine, the PBS and BBC websites, the Arizona Daily Star, Sky and Telescope, Scientific American, and American Scientist.

Carolyn has been the recipient of a number of awards and honors for her contributions to science and the public sphere. She is the namesake of Asteroid (7231) Porco, which was named to honor her work in planetary science. In 1999, she was selected by the London Sunday Times as one of 18 scientific leaders of the 21st century, and by Industrial Week as one of "50 Stars to Watch". In 2009, New Statesman named her as one of the "50 People Who Matter Today." In 2010 she was awarded the Carl Sagan Medal, presented by the American Astronomical Society for Excellence in the Communication of Science to the Public. And in 2012, she was named one the 25 most influential people in space by TIME magazine. Since 2015, Carolyn has been a visiting distinguished scholar at the University of California at Berkeley and, since 2017, a fellow of the California Academy of Sciences.

Rob Carlson

Managing director, Bioeconomy Capital

Rob Carlson

Managing director, Bioeconomy Capital

Dr. Rob Carlson is the Managing Director of Bioeconomy Capital, which invests in startups working at the interface of biology, engineering, and manufacturing. An entrepreneur and scientist, he is also the developer of widely-cited metrics for technological and economic progress in biotechnology. The Economist has deemed these “Carlson Curves” as equally important for biology as Moore’s Law is for semiconductors. Carlson has published widely in the fields of physics, biology, engineering, economics, strategy, and security. He is the author of Biology is Technology: The Promise, Peril, and New Business of Engineering Life, published in 2010 by Harvard University Press, which received the PROSE award for the Best Engineering and Technology Book of 2010 and was named to Best of 2010 lists by writers at both The Economist and Foreign Policy. Carlson earned a doctorate in physics from Princeton University in 1997.

Tom Bradicich

Head of IoT and Intelligent Edge Systems, HPE

Tom Bradicich

Head of IoT and Intelligent Edge Systems, HPE

Dr. Tom Bradicich is Vice President and General Manager at Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), leading the global business unit dense scalable servers and IoT Systems, with P&L, worldwide product development, and customer experience ownership. He and his team direct the global HPE Discovery Labs and IoT Innovation Labs for partner and customer collaborations, and head HPE’s IoT strategy. Tom was named in CRN’s Top 100 Executives and Top 25 Disrupters for both 2016 and 2017, and is an inductee in the NC State University Alumni Hall of Fame.

Tom has led teams to develop and launch dozens of products in his career, winning awards InfoWorld Technology of the Year, Network World Product of the Year, CRN Product of the Year, Frost & Sullivan Product Line Leadership, ARM TechCon Best of Show, IoT World Congress Best IoT Solution, IT Brand Pulse Leader (sweeping all categories), and the furthest on the Gartner Magic Quadrant, Modular Servers. Tom led the team to incept HPE’s first corporate IoT Strategy, and launched the GL™ and Edgeline™ products as HPE’s first line of systems expressly designed for the Intelligent Edge and IoT. And, created new product class called Converged Edge Systems.

Tom holds several U.S. patents in computer architecture and converged IT systems design, the BSEE, MSEE, and PhD degrees, and serves on the Dean’s Advisory Board of the College of Engineering, University of Florida. He is a sought after guest lecturer on Leadership, Business Innovation, and Technology Trends, and served on the adjunct faculty at several universities, teaching courses in the Departments of Electrical and Computer Engineer and Management of Information Systems.

Tom Standage

Deputy editor, The Economist

Tom Standage

Deputy editor, The Economist

Tom Standage is the deputy editor at of The Economist. He is also responsible for the newspaper's digital strategy and the development of new digital products, including Espresso and Economist Films. He is also the author of six history books, including Writing on the Wall (2013), A History of the World in 6 Glasses (2005) and The Victorian Internet (1998). He studied engineering and computing at Oxford University and has written for other publications including the New York Times, Daily Telegraph, Guardian and Wired, taking a particular interest in the internet's cultural and historical significance. He joined The Economist as science correspondent in 1998 and was subsequently appointed technology editor, business editor and digital editor.

Oliver Morton

Briefings editor, The Economist

Oliver Morton

Briefings editor, The Economist

Oliver Morton is The Economist's briefings editor. Before coming to The Economist as energy and environment editor in 2009, he was the chief news and features editor of Nature, the international scientific journal. He specialises in the energy business, climate science and policy, and other green issues. He is the author of Eating the Sun: How Plants Power the Planet, a study of photosynthesis, its meanings and its implications, and of Mapping Mars: Science, Imagination and the Birth of a World.

Jim Bell

President, The Planetary Society and author, Interstellar Age

Jim Bell

President, The Planetary Society and author, Interstellar Age

Dr. Jim Bell is a Professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona, an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Astronomy at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and a Distinguished Visiting Scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. He received his B.S. in Planetary Science and Aeronautics from Caltech, his M.S. and Ph.D. in Geology & Geophysics from the University of Hawaii, and served as a National Research Council postdoctoral research fellow at NASA's Ames Research Center. Jim's research group primarily focuses on the geology, geochemistry, and mineralogy of planets, moons, asteroids, and comets using data obtained from telescopes and spacecraft missions.

Jim is an active planetary scientist and has been heavily involved in many NASA robotic space exploration missions, including the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR), Mars Pathfinder, Comet Nucleus Tour, Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity, Mars Odyssey Orbiter, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, and the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosityrover mission. Jim is the lead scientist in charge of the Panoramic camera (Pancam) color, stereoscopic imaging system on the Spirit and Opportunity rovers, is the Deputy Principal Investigator of the Mastcam camera system on the Curiosity rover, and is the Principal Investigator for the Mastcam-Z cameras on NASA's upcoming Mars-2020 rover. As a professional scientist, Jim has published 35 first-authored and more than 180 co-authored research papers in peer reviewed scientific journals, has authored or co-authored nearly 600 short abstracts and scientific conference presentations, and has co-edited or edited two scientific books for Cambridge University Press.

Jim has a main belt asteroid named after him (8146 Jimbell). He and teammates have received more than a dozen NASA Group Achievement Awards for work on space missions, and he was the recipient of the 2011 Carl Sagan Medal from the American Astronomical Society, for excellence in public communication in planetary sciences.

Steven Link

Co-president, MIT Astropreneurship and Space Industry Club

Steven Link

Co-president, MIT Astropreneurship and Space Industry Club

Steven Link is a second-year graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology concurrently pursuing an MBA and MS in Mechanical Engineering as a Leaders for Global Operations fellow. He is Co-President of the MIT Astropreneurship and Space Industry Club, which has been connecting CEOs, entrepreneurs, students, and industry leaders to discuss the latest innovations and future of the New Space economy. He is the cofounder of VITNI, a microsatellite-based free space optical communications startup focused on revolutionizing data transfer. Prior to attending MIT, Steven earned a BS in Systems Engineering from the United States Naval Academy and served 5 years as a Navy Special Operations Officer.

Ariel Ekblaw

Founder and lead, MIT Media Lab’s Space Exploration Initiative

Ariel Ekblaw

Founder and lead, MIT Media Lab’s Space Exploration Initiative

Ariel Ekblaw is the founder and lead of the MIT Media Lab’s Space Exploration Initiative, a team of over 50 students, faculty and staff actively prototyping our space future. For the Initiative, Ms Ekblaw coordinates space research and launch opportunities across the spectrum of science, engineering, art and design, and builds collaborations on this work with MIT and space industry partners.

Ms Ekblaw is simultaneously a graduate research assistant at the MIT Media Lab, where she is completing a PhD in Aerospace Structures in Joseph Paradiso's Responsive Environments group. Her current research includes designing, testing and deploying self-assembling space architecture for future space tourist habitats and space stations in orbit around the Earth and Mars. Ms Ekblaw brings an interdisciplinary approach to her research at the Media Lab, with undergraduate degrees in physics, mathematics and philosophy from Yale University and a master’s in blockchain research from MIT.

Ms Ekblaw’s work has been featured by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, WIRED, Ars Technica, MIT Technology Review, Harvard Business Review, Wall Street Journal, PRI’s ScienceFriday, and more.

Barret Schlegelmilch

Co-president, MIT Astropreneurship and Space Industry Club

Barret Schlegelmilch

Co-president, MIT Astropreneurship and Space Industry Club

Barret Schlegelmilch is a second-year graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology concurrently pursuing an MBA and MS in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering as a Leaders for Global Operations fellow. He is Co-President of the MIT Astropreneurship and Space Industry Club and lead organizer of the MIT New Space Age Conference. Barret is a passionate proponent of the emerging space economy and has co-founded two space-focused startups. Prior to attending MIT, Barret earned a BS in Astrophysics from UCLA and served 5 years as a Navy Nuclear Submarine Officer.

Dario Zamarian

Group president, SSL

Dario Zamarian

Group president, SSL

Mr. Dario Zamarian is Group President of SSL, a leading provider of innovative satellites and spacecraft systems. In this role, he is responsible for all of the satellite and space systems markets the company serves including GEO Communications, LEO Communications and Earth Observation, Space Infrastructure Services and U.S. Government Systems.
With an execution track record that spans Fortune 100 companies, Private-Equity firms, and VC-backed start-ups, Mr. Zamarian brings a wealth of experience in leading transformative growth and strategic leadership to SSL, where he works closely with the senior executive team to support the needs of satellite operators around the world and drive growth into new markets.
Before joining SSL, Mr. Zamarian advised multiple technology companies affiliated with The Blackstone Group and served on several of their company boards. Most notably, he was instrumental in the strategy formulation, acquisition and integration activities that formed Optiv Security, a market-leading provider of end-to-end cyber security solutions.
Prior to that, Mr. Zamarian was Dell’s Global Vice President and Worldwide General Manager of the Enterprise Systems & Solutions and the Networking Divisions from 2010-2013. Mr. Zamarian served as Vice President and General Manager, Systems and Network Management at Cisco Systems from 2004-2010.
Previously he held positions in corporate strategy, product management, sales and software engineering for several technology firms in Silicon Valley.
Mr. Zamarian holds an M.S.E.E. from Polytechnic of Turin, Torino, Italy and an M.B.A from INSEAD (European Institute of Business Administration), Fontainebleau, France.

Robyn Gatens

Deputy director, International Space Station Division, NASA

Robyn Gatens

Deputy director, International Space Station Division, NASA

Ms. Robyn Gatens is the Deputy Director of the International Space Station Division in the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. In addition, she is the agency’s Systems Capability Lead for Environmental Control and Life Support Systems, or ECLSS, leading a team of system-specific subject matter experts from across the agency. Ms. Gatens has more than 30 years of experience in development and management of the systems and processes that support human life in space, everything from water recycling and reuse to the air astronauts breathe. At Headquarters, Ms. Gatens has led agency strategic planning to mature the life support and environmental monitoring technologies needed for future deep space exploration missions, using the space station as a demonstration testbed. As part of her role as ISS Division Deputy Director, Ms. Gatens spearheads NASA’s strategic planning to enable a successful, long-term private sector space economy in Low Earth Orbit by leveraging the ISS. She began her NASA career in 1985 at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. She held various leadership positions at Marshall, including Manager for the Orion Crew Support and Thermal Systems before transferring to NASA Headquarters in 2012. Ms. Gatens is the recipient of NASA’s Outstanding Leadership and Exceptional Achievement Medals, and holds a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Pete Roney

Chief innovations officer, Thales USA

Pete Roney

Chief innovations officer, Thales USA

Pete Roney is Vice President &amp; Chief Innovation Officer of Thales in the United States. He has held this position since August, 2014, and is responsible for managing Thales’ innovation team, new business ventures, partnerships with start-ups and academic institutions, and innovation process across Thales’ businesses in the U.S.

Before assuming this role, Pete was President of Thales Visionix, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Thales Group. He assumed this position after Thales Group completed its acquisition of Visionix in December, 2012. In this role, Pete was responsible for Thales’ military avionics activities in the United States.

Before Thales, Pete was Executive Vice President of Gentex Corporation. There, he led all program management, business development, corporate development and strategic planning across the company’s three business areas: Air Crew Systems, Ground Systems, and Helmet Mounted Displays.

Prior to joining Gentex, Pete was Managing Principal of Renaissance Strategic Advisors in Arlington, Virginia where he advised senior leaders throughout the aerospace, defense and private equity industries. Mr. Roney led engagements with clients whose capitalizations ranged from under $10 million to greater than $10 billion, and led diligence projects on transactions ranging in size from less than $10 million (EV) to over $1.5 billion. Earlier, Pete was the enterprise strategic planning manager at General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he managed the company’s annual strategic planning process and acquisition diligence activities across the unit’s four business areas. Pete’s professional experience also includes a distinguished military career with the United States Army through which he is three-tour veteran of Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom. Pete holds a Master of Business Administration Degree from Wake Forest University and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Economics from the United States Military Academy at West Point.

Mark Sirangelo

Corporate vice-president of space systems, Sierra Nevada Corporation

Mark Sirangelo

Corporate vice-president of space systems, Sierra Nevada Corporation

As a longtime, credible voice and global leader within the aerospace industry, Mark Sirangelo leads SNC’s Space Systems business area based in Louisville, Colorado. Sirangelo has helped to build and grow an SNC product portfolio including small satellites; space technologies that have enabled more than 450 planetary missions such as the Mars Curiosity Rover and New Horizons Pluto mission; rocket motors, including the motors that won the Ansari X-Prize; in-space life support and plant growth systems; and, perhaps most notably, he is responsible for developing the Dream Chaser® spacecraft, the only reusable, lifting-body, low-Earth orbit vehicle, capable of landing on commercial runways around the world. Recently selected for NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services 2 (CRS2) contract, SNC’s Dream Chaser Cargo System will be providing cargo delivery, disposal and return services to the International Space Station through 2024. SNC has been named one of the “World's Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Space” by Fast Company for its contributions to commercial spaceflight.

Sirangelo assumed his current role as head of SNC’s Space Systems business area in 2009, when SNC acquired SpaceDev Inc, where Sirangelo was chairman and CEO. He has been named among the Defense Industry’s Fast Track 50, Deloitte’s Fast Track 500, selected as a finalist in Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year, included in Inc.magazine’s Top 200 and was inducted into the NASA/Space Foundation’s Technology Hall of Fame. Currently, Sirangelo is chairman emeritus of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, a member of the board of governors of the Aerospace Industries Association, the founding and current chairman of eSpace, and the Center for Space Entrepreneurship, a nonprofit that supports STEM education and the development of entrepreneurial space companies. He has been inducted as an associate fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and is a member of the Chancellor’s Advisory Board for the University of Colorado.

In addition to his service within the aerospace industry Sirangelo also serves as a board member and trustee of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The center has resolved over 100,000 missing children cases and has created such known programs as the Amber Alert and Code Adam. From 2012 through 2015 he served as the state of Colorado’s chief innovation officer, a position appointed directly by the Governor in order to promote innovation throughout the state. He currently serves as board member of the Colorado Energy Research Authority Board.

Sirangelo served his country proudly and with distinction as a U.S. Army officer and has a multi-faceted personal background which includes being a long-term licensed pilot. He holds a Bachelor of Science, a Master of Business Administration and doctorate degrees.

Agenda

Registration

8:20 AM

Breakfast session. A space odyssey: The tools and the vision powering man's next great leap

Sponsored by HPE. NASA’s Voyager mission, celebrated its 40th anniversary last August. The twin spacecraft—each with less computing power than a cell phone—used slingshot trajectories to visit Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. The spacecraft sent back unprecedented images and data that revolutionized our understanding of the outer planets. Technology can move us from a one off mission to a sustained human presence. This will require an intelligent ecosystem of sensors and devices which will allow us to operate in new ways and enable new depths of exploration into space. Could that lead into a mission to Mars? What are the biological technologies that can be used in space and what's their role in designing humanity's future? Who are the explorers inventing the future we're going to live in beyond earth?

Rob Carlson

Managing director, Bioeconomy Capital

Rob Carlson

Managing director, Bioeconomy Capital

Dr. Rob Carlson is the Managing Director of Bioeconomy Capital, which invests in startups working at the interface of biology, engineering, and manufacturing. An entrepreneur and scientist, he is also the developer of widely-cited metrics for technological and economic progress in biotechnology. The Economist has deemed these “Carlson Curves” as equally important for biology as Moore’s Law is for semiconductors. Carlson has published widely in the fields of physics, biology, engineering, economics, strategy, and security. He is the author of Biology is Technology: The Promise, Peril, and New Business of Engineering Life, published in 2010 by Harvard University Press, which received the PROSE award for the Best Engineering and Technology Book of 2010 and was named to Best of 2010 lists by writers at both The Economist and Foreign Policy. Carlson earned a doctorate in physics from Princeton University in 1997.

Tom Bradicich

Head of IoT and Intelligent Edge Systems, HPE

Tom Bradicich

Head of IoT and Intelligent Edge Systems, HPE

Dr. Tom Bradicich is Vice President and General Manager at Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), leading the global business unit dense scalable servers and IoT Systems, with P&L, worldwide product development, and customer experience ownership. He and his team direct the global HPE Discovery Labs and IoT Innovation Labs for partner and customer collaborations, and head HPE’s IoT strategy. Tom was named in CRN’s Top 100 Executives and Top 25 Disrupters for both 2016 and 2017, and is an inductee in the NC State University Alumni Hall of Fame.

Tom has led teams to develop and launch dozens of products in his career, winning awards InfoWorld Technology of the Year, Network World Product of the Year, CRN Product of the Year, Frost & Sullivan Product Line Leadership, ARM TechCon Best of Show, IoT World Congress Best IoT Solution, IT Brand Pulse Leader (sweeping all categories), and the furthest on the Gartner Magic Quadrant, Modular Servers. Tom led the team to incept HPE’s first corporate IoT Strategy, and launched the GL™ and Edgeline™ products as HPE’s first line of systems expressly designed for the Intelligent Edge and IoT. And, created new product class called Converged Edge Systems.

Tom holds several U.S. patents in computer architecture and converged IT systems design, the BSEE, MSEE, and PhD degrees, and serves on the Dean’s Advisory Board of the College of Engineering, University of Florida. He is a sought after guest lecturer on Leadership, Business Innovation, and Technology Trends, and served on the adjunct faculty at several universities, teaching courses in the Departments of Electrical and Computer Engineer and Management of Information Systems.

Jim Bell

President, The Planetary Society and author, Interstellar Age

Jim Bell

President, The Planetary Society and author, Interstellar Age

Dr. Jim Bell is a Professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona, an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Astronomy at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and a Distinguished Visiting Scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. He received his B.S. in Planetary Science and Aeronautics from Caltech, his M.S. and Ph.D. in Geology & Geophysics from the University of Hawaii, and served as a National Research Council postdoctoral research fellow at NASA's Ames Research Center. Jim's research group primarily focuses on the geology, geochemistry, and mineralogy of planets, moons, asteroids, and comets using data obtained from telescopes and spacecraft missions.

Jim is an active planetary scientist and has been heavily involved in many NASA robotic space exploration missions, including the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR), Mars Pathfinder, Comet Nucleus Tour, Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity, Mars Odyssey Orbiter, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, and the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosityrover mission. Jim is the lead scientist in charge of the Panoramic camera (Pancam) color, stereoscopic imaging system on the Spirit and Opportunity rovers, is the Deputy Principal Investigator of the Mastcam camera system on the Curiosity rover, and is the Principal Investigator for the Mastcam-Z cameras on NASA's upcoming Mars-2020 rover. As a professional scientist, Jim has published 35 first-authored and more than 180 co-authored research papers in peer reviewed scientific journals, has authored or co-authored nearly 600 short abstracts and scientific conference presentations, and has co-edited or edited two scientific books for Cambridge University Press.

Jim has a main belt asteroid named after him (8146 Jimbell). He and teammates have received more than a dozen NASA Group Achievement Awards for work on space missions, and he was the recipient of the 2011 Carl Sagan Medal from the American Astronomical Society, for excellence in public communication in planetary sciences.

Tom Standage

Deputy editor, The Economist

Tom Standage

Deputy editor, The Economist

Tom Standage is the deputy editor at of The Economist. He is also responsible for the newspaper's digital strategy and the development of new digital products, including Espresso and Economist Films. He is also the author of six history books, including Writing on the Wall (2013), A History of the World in 6 Glasses (2005) and The Victorian Internet (1998). He studied engineering and computing at Oxford University and has written for other publications including the New York Times, Daily Telegraph, Guardian and Wired, taking a particular interest in the internet's cultural and historical significance. He joined The Economist as science correspondent in 1998 and was subsequently appointed technology editor, business editor and digital editor.

Robyn Gatens

Deputy director, International Space Station Division, NASA

Robyn Gatens

Deputy director, International Space Station Division, NASA

Ms. Robyn Gatens is the Deputy Director of the International Space Station Division in the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. In addition, she is the agency’s Systems Capability Lead for Environmental Control and Life Support Systems, or ECLSS, leading a team of system-specific subject matter experts from across the agency. Ms. Gatens has more than 30 years of experience in development and management of the systems and processes that support human life in space, everything from water recycling and reuse to the air astronauts breathe. At Headquarters, Ms. Gatens has led agency strategic planning to mature the life support and environmental monitoring technologies needed for future deep space exploration missions, using the space station as a demonstration testbed. As part of her role as ISS Division Deputy Director, Ms. Gatens spearheads NASA’s strategic planning to enable a successful, long-term private sector space economy in Low Earth Orbit by leveraging the ISS. She began her NASA career in 1985 at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. She held various leadership positions at Marshall, including Manager for the Orion Crew Support and Thermal Systems before transferring to NASA Headquarters in 2012. Ms. Gatens is the recipient of NASA’s Outstanding Leadership and Exceptional Achievement Medals, and holds a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

9:05 AM

Opening remarks

Tom Standage

Deputy editor, The Economist

Tom Standage

Deputy editor, The Economist

Tom Standage is the deputy editor at of The Economist. He is also responsible for the newspaper's digital strategy and the development of new digital products, including Espresso and Economist Films. He is also the author of six history books, including Writing on the Wall (2013), A History of the World in 6 Glasses (2005) and The Victorian Internet (1998). He studied engineering and computing at Oxford University and has written for other publications including the New York Times, Daily Telegraph, Guardian and Wired, taking a particular interest in the internet's cultural and historical significance. He joined The Economist as science correspondent in 1998 and was subsequently appointed technology editor, business editor and digital editor.

9:10 AM

A spacefaring species?

A forward-looking and thought-provoking fireside chat with an individual whose accomplishments inspire the scientists, engineers and astronauts who will take us to Mars and beyond -- not just to visit, but to stay.

Carolyn Porco

Planetary scientist, Cassini mission

Carolyn Porco

Planetary scientist, Cassini mission

Carolyn Porco is the leader of the imaging science team on the Cassini mission in orbit around Saturn from 2004 to 2017, a veteran imaging scientist of the Voyager mission to the outer solar system in the 1980s, and an associate member of the New Horizons mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt. Carolyn has co-authored over 125 scientific papers on a variety of subjects in astronomy and planetary science and has become a regular public commentator on science, astronomy, planetary exploration, and the intersection of science and religion. Her popular science writings have appeared in such distinguished publications as the London Sunday Times, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Guardian, Astronomy magazine, the PBS and BBC websites, the Arizona Daily Star, Sky and Telescope, Scientific American, and American Scientist.

Carolyn has been the recipient of a number of awards and honors for her contributions to science and the public sphere. She is the namesake of Asteroid (7231) Porco, which was named to honor her work in planetary science. In 1999, she was selected by the London Sunday Times as one of 18 scientific leaders of the 21st century, and by Industrial Week as one of "50 Stars to Watch". In 2009, New Statesman named her as one of the "50 People Who Matter Today." In 2010 she was awarded the Carl Sagan Medal, presented by the American Astronomical Society for Excellence in the Communication of Science to the Public. And in 2012, she was named one the 25 most influential people in space by TIME magazine. Since 2015, Carolyn has been a visiting distinguished scholar at the University of California at Berkeley and, since 2017, a fellow of the California Academy of Sciences.

Oliver Morton

Briefings editor, The Economist

Oliver Morton

Briefings editor, The Economist

Oliver Morton is The Economist's briefings editor. Before coming to The Economist as energy and environment editor in 2009, he was the chief news and features editor of Nature, the international scientific journal. He specialises in the energy business, climate science and policy, and other green issues. He is the author of Eating the Sun: How Plants Power the Planet, a study of photosynthesis, its meanings and its implications, and of Mapping Mars: Science, Imagination and the Birth of a World.

9:30 AM

Down to earth: The global economic impact of space

Space travel is an important aspect of the human experience, whether for scientific discovery, economic benefit or national security. The space economy already permeates many aspects of modern life (such as telecommunications, broadcasting and travel), and is estimated to represent more than $320 billion in spending. What can space-based technologies and services do to solve the Earth’s greatest challenges? Who are the entrepreneurs profiting from space technologies on earth? And what are the untapped business opportunities?

Dirk Hoke

Chief executive, Airbus Defence and Space

Dirk Hoke

Chief executive, Airbus Defence and Space

Dirk Hoke is chief executive of Airbus Defence and Space since 1 April 2016. He joined the company three months earlier as deputy chief executive. He is a member of the Airbus Group Executive Committee.

Dirk Hoke joined Airbus Group from Siemens, where he has been chief executive of the Large Drives Business Unit since 2014. He has held various executive-level positions at Siemens since becoming the chief executive of the Cluster Western & Central Africa in 2008. His career spans 21 years and five continents.

In 1994, Dirk Hoke began his professional career as R&D Engineer for process and software analysis in the automotive industry at Renault in Paris. In 1996, he joined Siemens through an international trainee programme with assignments in Germany, Argentina and Austria. He then held various management posts in the Transportation Systems Division based in Germany. He relocated to Sacramento, USA, as the head of the Transportation Systems restructuring team in 2001.

Dirk Hoke continued his professional career at Siemens as general manager for the Transrapid Propulsion and Power Supply Subdivision from 2002 to 2005 including the Shanghai “Maglev” project. He was then promoted to president of Siemens Transportation Systems China and made Siemens the largest foreign railway supplier in the country.

In 2008, Dirk Hoke moved to Morocco to lead Siemens’ Africa activities. He returned to Germany in 2011 to become the division chief executive of Industrial Solutions with the special task to build up the services business for the Industry Sector. Afterwards, he was called upon to restructure the Large Drives Business Unit.

Dirk Hoke holds a degree in mechanical engineering from the Technical University of Brunswick, Germany. In 2010, Dirk Hoke became a member of the Young Global Leader Class of the World Economic Forum and, in 2013 a member of the Baden Baden Entrepreneur Talks.

Born in April 1969, Dirk Hoke is married with two children.

Lori B. Garver

General manager, Air Line Pilots Association, and former deputy administrator, NASA

Lori B. Garver

General manager, Air Line Pilots Association, and former deputy administrator, NASA

Lori Garver serves as the general manager of the Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l. ALPA is the largest airline pilot union in the world and represents more than 52,000 pilots at 30 U.S. and Canadian airlines. Ms. Garver is responsible for the business operations of the Association, including: strategic planning and project management; ALPA’s finances, budgets, investments, administration and information technology; mergers and organizing; member benefits; and personnel management. She oversees the professional activities performed by ALPA employees in the areas of collective bargaining, contract administration, organizing, air safety, communications, association administration, law and litigation, and government relations.

Prior to joining ALPA, Ms. Garver served as the deputy administrator of NASA, from 2009 – 2013. Her efforts at NASA focused on advancing U.S. aeronautics and space activities through technology development, partnerships and innovation. This was her second time serving at NASA, having previously served in a number of positions from 1996 – 2001.

Other public roles have included being the lead civil space policy advisor to Mr. Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign and the head of his transition team for NASA. She also served as the lead space policy advisor for the Hillary Clinton and John Kerry presidential campaigns. Throughout her career she has held a variety of senior positions in government, non-profit and commercial sectors.

Ms. Garver is a member of the board of directors of MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA), a global communications and information company, and on the Commercial board of advisors of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR).

Ms. Garver earned a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Economics from Colorado College and a master’s degree in Science, Technology and Public Policy from George Washington University.

Brian Weeden

Director of program planning, Secure World Foundation

Brian Weeden

Director of program planning, Secure World Foundation

Dr. Brian Weeden is the director of program planning for Secure World Foundation and has 17 years of professional experience in space operations and policy.

Dr. Weeden directs strategic planning for future-year projects to meet the Foundation's goals and objectives, and conducts research on space debris, global space situational awareness, space traffic management, protection of space assets, and space governance. Dr. Weeden also organizes national and international workshops to increase awareness of and facilitate dialogue on space security, stability, and sustainability topics. He is a member and former chair of the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on Space, and is also a member of the Advisory Committee on Commercial Remote Sensing (ACCRES) to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Prior to joining SWF, Dr. Weeden served nine years on active duty as an officer in the United States Air Force working in space and intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) operations. As part of U.S. Strategic Command's Joint Space Operations Center (JSpOC), Dr. Weeden directed the orbital analyst training program and developed tactics, techniques and procedures for improving space situational awareness.

Tom Standage

Deputy editor, The Economist

Tom Standage

Deputy editor, The Economist

Tom Standage is the deputy editor at of The Economist. He is also responsible for the newspaper's digital strategy and the development of new digital products, including Espresso and Economist Films. He is also the author of six history books, including Writing on the Wall (2013), A History of the World in 6 Glasses (2005) and The Victorian Internet (1998). He studied engineering and computing at Oxford University and has written for other publications including the New York Times, Daily Telegraph, Guardian and Wired, taking a particular interest in the internet's cultural and historical significance. He joined The Economist as science correspondent in 1998 and was subsequently appointed technology editor, business editor and digital editor.

Dario Zamarian

Group president, SSL

Dario Zamarian

Group president, SSL

Mr. Dario Zamarian is Group President of SSL, a leading provider of innovative satellites and spacecraft systems. In this role, he is responsible for all of the satellite and space systems markets the company serves including GEO Communications, LEO Communications and Earth Observation, Space Infrastructure Services and U.S. Government Systems.
With an execution track record that spans Fortune 100 companies, Private-Equity firms, and VC-backed start-ups, Mr. Zamarian brings a wealth of experience in leading transformative growth and strategic leadership to SSL, where he works closely with the senior executive team to support the needs of satellite operators around the world and drive growth into new markets.
Before joining SSL, Mr. Zamarian advised multiple technology companies affiliated with The Blackstone Group and served on several of their company boards. Most notably, he was instrumental in the strategy formulation, acquisition and integration activities that formed Optiv Security, a market-leading provider of end-to-end cyber security solutions.
Prior to that, Mr. Zamarian was Dell’s Global Vice President and Worldwide General Manager of the Enterprise Systems & Solutions and the Networking Divisions from 2010-2013. Mr. Zamarian served as Vice President and General Manager, Systems and Network Management at Cisco Systems from 2004-2010.
Previously he held positions in corporate strategy, product management, sales and software engineering for several technology firms in Silicon Valley.
Mr. Zamarian holds an M.S.E.E. from Polytechnic of Turin, Torino, Italy and an M.B.A from INSEAD (European Institute of Business Administration), Fontainebleau, France.

10:15 AM

Space’s business plan: investors’ extra-terrestrial ad(venture)s

The private sector is prepared to do things the government never was. In 2001-05, venture investments in space businesses worldwide totalled just $186m. In 2011-15 they had risen to $2.3 billion, according to a study by the Tauri group, a consulting business specialized in homeland security, defense, and space enterprises. A new wave of space companies has been able to sell itself to VCs as a way to “follow the path terrestrial tech has profitably travelled: dropping system costs and massively increasing user bases for new products, especially new data products”. Why are they buying it? How do they uncover the hidden prospects and overcome the obvious challenges? Imaging, asteroid mining, data: what is the full spectrum of opportunities? In a one on one in-depth conversation with investor Steve Jurvetson, we will examine a wide number of variables sweeping across the space industry landscape that might fundamentally change it.

Steve Jurvetson

Partner, Draper Fisher Jurvetson

Steve Jurvetson

Partner, Draper Fisher Jurvetson

Steve Jurvetson has a reputation for investing in pioneering companies that create new sectors. Two early bets include Elon Musk-led companies, Tesla (Jurvetson owns its first sedan and second SUV) and SpaceX. Jurvetson holds board seats at both companies. He also serves on the Board of Directors for Planet, a company that has launched the largest constellation of Earth-observation micro-satellites, D-Wave, a quantum computing company which counts Google, NASA and Lockheed-Martin as customers, and Mythic, a provider of a local AI hardware and software platform that turns devices into secure and trusted intelligent assistants. He previously held a board seat at deep learning company Nervana, acquired by Intel in 2016. He completed his undergraduate degree at Stanford in electrical engineering in two-and-a-half-years, and became a name partner at DFJ within six months of joining. Jurvetson maintains a fascination for space and has turned DFJ's office into a museum showcasing his space artifact collection.

Tom Standage

Deputy editor, The Economist

Tom Standage

Deputy editor, The Economist

Tom Standage is the deputy editor at of The Economist. He is also responsible for the newspaper's digital strategy and the development of new digital products, including Espresso and Economist Films. He is also the author of six history books, including Writing on the Wall (2013), A History of the World in 6 Glasses (2005) and The Victorian Internet (1998). He studied engineering and computing at Oxford University and has written for other publications including the New York Times, Daily Telegraph, Guardian and Wired, taking a particular interest in the internet's cultural and historical significance. He joined The Economist as science correspondent in 1998 and was subsequently appointed technology editor, business editor and digital editor.

10:45 AM

Our Way to the Stars: Astropreneurships and Space Hacking

Get a preview of high-bandwidth space-based laser systems poised to revolutionize the way we communicate from the MIT Astropreneurship and Space Industry Club. Hear from the MIT Media Lab Space Exploration Initiative about self-assembling in-orbit architecture, bioengineering genomes for space and blockchain-mediated satellite telecommunications as they look to democratize access to space exploration technology.

Barret Schlegelmilch

Co-president, MIT Astropreneurship and Space Industry Club

Barret Schlegelmilch

Co-president, MIT Astropreneurship and Space Industry Club

Barret Schlegelmilch is a second-year graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology concurrently pursuing an MBA and MS in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering as a Leaders for Global Operations fellow. He is Co-President of the MIT Astropreneurship and Space Industry Club and lead organizer of the MIT New Space Age Conference. Barret is a passionate proponent of the emerging space economy and has co-founded two space-focused startups. Prior to attending MIT, Barret earned a BS in Astrophysics from UCLA and served 5 years as a Navy Nuclear Submarine Officer.

Steven Link

Co-president, MIT Astropreneurship and Space Industry Club

Steven Link

Co-president, MIT Astropreneurship and Space Industry Club

Steven Link is a second-year graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology concurrently pursuing an MBA and MS in Mechanical Engineering as a Leaders for Global Operations fellow. He is Co-President of the MIT Astropreneurship and Space Industry Club, which has been connecting CEOs, entrepreneurs, students, and industry leaders to discuss the latest innovations and future of the New Space economy. He is the cofounder of VITNI, a microsatellite-based free space optical communications startup focused on revolutionizing data transfer. Prior to attending MIT, Steven earned a BS in Systems Engineering from the United States Naval Academy and served 5 years as a Navy Special Operations Officer.

Ariel Ekblaw

Founder and lead, MIT Media Lab’s Space Exploration Initiative

Ariel Ekblaw

Founder and lead, MIT Media Lab’s Space Exploration Initiative

Ariel Ekblaw is the founder and lead of the MIT Media Lab’s Space Exploration Initiative, a team of over 50 students, faculty and staff actively prototyping our space future. For the Initiative, Ms Ekblaw coordinates space research and launch opportunities across the spectrum of science, engineering, art and design, and builds collaborations on this work with MIT and space industry partners.

Ms Ekblaw is simultaneously a graduate research assistant at the MIT Media Lab, where she is completing a PhD in Aerospace Structures in Joseph Paradiso's Responsive Environments group. Her current research includes designing, testing and deploying self-assembling space architecture for future space tourist habitats and space stations in orbit around the Earth and Mars. Ms Ekblaw brings an interdisciplinary approach to her research at the Media Lab, with undergraduate degrees in physics, mathematics and philosophy from Yale University and a master’s in blockchain research from MIT.

Ms Ekblaw’s work has been featured by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, WIRED, Ars Technica, MIT Technology Review, Harvard Business Review, Wall Street Journal, PRI’s ScienceFriday, and more.

11:00 AM

Morning networking break

11:30 AM

Big Bang disruptors

Our first big bang disruptor presenter will delve into China and India’s future significant role in interplanetary exploration – both robotic and human and talk about how the industry is being reshaped by private entrepreneurs.

Susmita Mohanty

Co-founder and chief executive, Earth2Orbit

Susmita Mohanty

Co-founder and chief executive, Earth2Orbit

Susmita Mohanty is a spaceship designer and serial space entrepreneur. She is the cofounder and chief executive of EARTH2ORBIT, India’s first private space start-up. She has cofounded and led two other companies, MOONFRONT in San Francisco [2001-2007] and LIQUIFER in Vienna [2004-ongoing].

Before turning entrepreneur, Susmita worked in business development for the International Space Station program at Boeing in California. She also worked on Shuttle-Mir missions at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Since 1998, Susmita has worked with the Americans, Japanese, Europeans, Russians and Indians in various capacities, as employee, consultant, contractor, entrepreneur and advisor.

In 2005, Susmita was honored on Capitol Hill [Washington DC] with the International Achievement Award for promoting international cooperation through entrepreneurial space ventures. In 2012, she was voted into Financial Times’ list of “25 Indians to Watch”. In 2016, she was nominated to the World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Future Council for Space Technologies.

Educated in India, France, and Sweden, Susmita holds multiple degrees including a PhD.

Oliver Morton

Briefings editor, The Economist

Oliver Morton

Briefings editor, The Economist

Oliver Morton is The Economist's briefings editor. Before coming to The Economist as energy and environment editor in 2009, he was the chief news and features editor of Nature, the international scientific journal. He specialises in the energy business, climate science and policy, and other green issues. He is the author of Eating the Sun: How Plants Power the Planet, a study of photosynthesis, its meanings and its implications, and of Mapping Mars: Science, Imagination and the Birth of a World.

11:45 AM

The data race

Eco-warriors and hedge funds don’t usually have a lot in common. Both will increasingly rely on space though, for information on everything from crops, shipping, traffic and wildlife. Satellite companies (and the third parties that use their data) have invested heavily in machine-learning to extract answers from the huge amounts of data they now collect. Who will be the leaders, and who will be the laggards? Who are the unexpected businesses championing data in space? And how can entrepreneurs and incumbent companies alike capitalise on the possibilities?

Carissa Bryce Christensen

Founder and chief executive, Bryce Space and Technology

Carissa Bryce Christensen

Founder and chief executive, Bryce Space and Technology

Carissa Bryce Christensen is the founder and chief executive of Bryce Space and Technology. She previously co-founded The Tauri Group, LLC and was a partner in CenTauri Solutions, LLC (acquired by CSC in 2010). Ms. Christensen is an internationally recognized expert in commercial space. For over two decades she has engaged the leading edge of the space industry with innovative analysis of space systems and advanced technology. She led the creation of widely used financial and economic indicators now considered global metrics for the commercial space and satellite sectors.

A frequent speaker and author on space and satellite trends, Ms. Christensen serves as a strategic advisor to government and commercial clients, and has been an expert witness and testified before Congress on market dynamics. She is an active investor in technology-focused startups and advises several companies she has helped seed. She serves on the board of QxBranch, an early stage quantum computing software firm in which she is a partner.

Ms. Christensen holds a Master of Public Policy degree from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, where she specialized in science and technology policy. She also completed the General Course in Government at the London School of Economics and was a Douglass Scholar at Rutgers University.

Ms. Christensen is an associate fellow of The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Association.

Peter Platzer

Chief executive, Spire

Peter Platzer

Chief executive, Spire

Peter Platzer co-founded Spire in 2012 with a vision to provide high frequency/high accuracy satellite-powered data from anywhere on earth. While Platzer is regarded as a pioneer in launching small form factor satellites into space, he is also known for his visionary leadership and was named a White House Champion of Change in 2013. Prior to launching Spire, Platzer trained at CERN, Max Planck Institute, interned at NASA Ames’ Space Portal, and was awarded an MSS from the International Space University, an MS in Physics from the Technical University of Vienna and an MBA from Harvard.

Chad Anderson

Chief executive, Space Angels and managing partner, Space Capital

Chad Anderson

Chief executive, Space Angels and managing partner, Space Capital

Chad Anderson is chief executive of Space Angels and managing partner of Space Capital, together the world’s leading source of capital for entrepreneurial space ventures. He also serves on several boards, including the UK Space Catapult's, where he supports the national strategy to grow the space sector in the country.

Prior to his current roles, Mr Anderson enjoyed a successful career at JP Morgan Chase where he managed a $50bn real estate portfolio through the Great Recession. Anderson holds an MBA from the University of Oxford, with a focus on entrepreneurship and innovation.

Oliver Morton

Briefings editor, The Economist

Oliver Morton

Briefings editor, The Economist

Oliver Morton is The Economist's briefings editor. Before coming to The Economist as energy and environment editor in 2009, he was the chief news and features editor of Nature, the international scientific journal. He specialises in the energy business, climate science and policy, and other green issues. He is the author of Eating the Sun: How Plants Power the Planet, a study of photosynthesis, its meanings and its implications, and of Mapping Mars: Science, Imagination and the Birth of a World.

Pete Roney

Chief innovations officer, Thales USA

Pete Roney

Chief innovations officer, Thales USA

Pete Roney is Vice President &amp; Chief Innovation Officer of Thales in the United States. He has held this position since August, 2014, and is responsible for managing Thales’ innovation team, new business ventures, partnerships with start-ups and academic institutions, and innovation process across Thales’ businesses in the U.S.

Before assuming this role, Pete was President of Thales Visionix, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Thales Group. He assumed this position after Thales Group completed its acquisition of Visionix in December, 2012. In this role, Pete was responsible for Thales’ military avionics activities in the United States.

Before Thales, Pete was Executive Vice President of Gentex Corporation. There, he led all program management, business development, corporate development and strategic planning across the company’s three business areas: Air Crew Systems, Ground Systems, and Helmet Mounted Displays.

Prior to joining Gentex, Pete was Managing Principal of Renaissance Strategic Advisors in Arlington, Virginia where he advised senior leaders throughout the aerospace, defense and private equity industries. Mr. Roney led engagements with clients whose capitalizations ranged from under $10 million to greater than $10 billion, and led diligence projects on transactions ranging in size from less than $10 million (EV) to over $1.5 billion. Earlier, Pete was the enterprise strategic planning manager at General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he managed the company’s annual strategic planning process and acquisition diligence activities across the unit’s four business areas. Pete’s professional experience also includes a distinguished military career with the United States Army through which he is three-tour veteran of Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom. Pete holds a Master of Business Administration Degree from Wake Forest University and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Economics from the United States Military Academy at West Point.

12:30 PM

Fireside chat

Rocket man: Billionaires race to take you to space

George Whitesides

Chief executive, Virgin Galactic and The Spaceship Company

George Whitesides

Chief executive, Virgin Galactic and The Spaceship Company

George T. Whitesides is the chief executive of Virgin Galactic, Sir Richard Branson’s human spaceflight venture, and The Spaceship Company, a manufacturer of advanced space vehicles. With its innovative spacecraft, the company seeks to transform access to space to change the world for good.

Prior to Virgin Galactic, George served as chief of staff for NASA. Upon departure from the American space agency, he received the Distinguished Service Medal, the highest award the agency confers.

George serves as co-chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Space Technologies. He is a member of Caltech’s Space Innovation Council and Princeton University’s Advisory Council for Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. He is a fellow of the UK Royal Aeronautical Society and an associate fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

He previously chaired the Reusable Launch Vehicle Working Group for the FAA’s Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee, and served on the board of trustees of Princeton University and the board of Virgin Unite USA.

George has testified on American space policy before the United States Senate, the United States House of Representatives, and the President’s Commission on Implementation of United States Space Exploration Policy.

An honors graduate of Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School, George later earned a master’s degree in geographic information systems and remote sensing from the University of Cambridge, and a Fulbright Scholarship to Tunisia. George is a licensed private pilot and certified parabolic flight coach.

He resides in Lancaster, California with his wife Loretta and two children.

Tom Standage

Deputy editor, The Economist

Tom Standage

Deputy editor, The Economist

Tom Standage is the deputy editor at of The Economist. He is also responsible for the newspaper's digital strategy and the development of new digital products, including Espresso and Economist Films. He is also the author of six history books, including Writing on the Wall (2013), A History of the World in 6 Glasses (2005) and The Victorian Internet (1998). He studied engineering and computing at Oxford University and has written for other publications including the New York Times, Daily Telegraph, Guardian and Wired, taking a particular interest in the internet's cultural and historical significance. He joined The Economist as science correspondent in 1998 and was subsequently appointed technology editor, business editor and digital editor.

12:50 PM

Big Bang Disruptors

Hear from the leader behind the Dream Chaser space plane, also known as the “mini-space shuttle,” that will carry NASA cargo to the International Space Station.

Mark Sirangelo

Corporate vice-president of space systems, Sierra Nevada Corporation

Mark Sirangelo

Corporate vice-president of space systems, Sierra Nevada Corporation

As a longtime, credible voice and global leader within the aerospace industry, Mark Sirangelo leads SNC’s Space Systems business area based in Louisville, Colorado. Sirangelo has helped to build and grow an SNC product portfolio including small satellites; space technologies that have enabled more than 450 planetary missions such as the Mars Curiosity Rover and New Horizons Pluto mission; rocket motors, including the motors that won the Ansari X-Prize; in-space life support and plant growth systems; and, perhaps most notably, he is responsible for developing the Dream Chaser® spacecraft, the only reusable, lifting-body, low-Earth orbit vehicle, capable of landing on commercial runways around the world. Recently selected for NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services 2 (CRS2) contract, SNC’s Dream Chaser Cargo System will be providing cargo delivery, disposal and return services to the International Space Station through 2024. SNC has been named one of the “World's Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Space” by Fast Company for its contributions to commercial spaceflight.

Sirangelo assumed his current role as head of SNC’s Space Systems business area in 2009, when SNC acquired SpaceDev Inc, where Sirangelo was chairman and CEO. He has been named among the Defense Industry’s Fast Track 50, Deloitte’s Fast Track 500, selected as a finalist in Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year, included in Inc.magazine’s Top 200 and was inducted into the NASA/Space Foundation’s Technology Hall of Fame. Currently, Sirangelo is chairman emeritus of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, a member of the board of governors of the Aerospace Industries Association, the founding and current chairman of eSpace, and the Center for Space Entrepreneurship, a nonprofit that supports STEM education and the development of entrepreneurial space companies. He has been inducted as an associate fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and is a member of the Chancellor’s Advisory Board for the University of Colorado.

In addition to his service within the aerospace industry Sirangelo also serves as a board member and trustee of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The center has resolved over 100,000 missing children cases and has created such known programs as the Amber Alert and Code Adam. From 2012 through 2015 he served as the state of Colorado’s chief innovation officer, a position appointed directly by the Governor in order to promote innovation throughout the state. He currently serves as board member of the Colorado Energy Research Authority Board.

Sirangelo served his country proudly and with distinction as a U.S. Army officer and has a multi-faceted personal background which includes being a long-term licensed pilot. He holds a Bachelor of Science, a Master of Business Administration and doctorate degrees.

Oliver Morton

Briefings editor, The Economist

Oliver Morton

Briefings editor, The Economist

Oliver Morton is The Economist's briefings editor. Before coming to The Economist as energy and environment editor in 2009, he was the chief news and features editor of Nature, the international scientific journal. He specialises in the energy business, climate science and policy, and other green issues. He is the author of Eating the Sun: How Plants Power the Planet, a study of photosynthesis, its meanings and its implications, and of Mapping Mars: Science, Imagination and the Birth of a World.

1:05 PM

Networking Lunch

2:30 PM

Big Bang disruptors

We will take a trip into orbit and experience life on board the International Space Station! In this Emmy-nominated simulation, the audience will learn how to move and work in zero-gravity using touch controllers.

Amaresh Kollipara

VR producer and SETI Institute board member

Amaresh Kollipara

VR producer and SETI Institute board member

Amaresh Kollipara is a space industry executive with a multidisciplinary background. He recently led an Emmy nominated project at Facebook's virtual reality company Oculus. Called Mission:ISS, this project was conducted in collaboration with NASA and ESA and is a true-to-life simulation of the International Space Station in VR. In addition, he is a co-founder and managing partner of Earth2Orbit, LLC, which is a professional advisory firm with an aerospace industry focus. He strongly feels that the future of commercial space, and the future of humanity's relationship with space, is dependent on the development of useful applications based on space infrastructure.

He currently serves on the board of the SETI Institute and the Space Frontier Foundation. He served as a principal of the Space Angels Network, a professionally managed global network of investors. Amaresh also currently serves as an advisor to C-level executives in the financial services, healthcare, and hi-tech industries.

Oliver Morton

Briefings editor, The Economist

Oliver Morton

Briefings editor, The Economist

Oliver Morton is The Economist's briefings editor. Before coming to The Economist as energy and environment editor in 2009, he was the chief news and features editor of Nature, the international scientific journal. He specialises in the energy business, climate science and policy, and other green issues. He is the author of Eating the Sun: How Plants Power the Planet, a study of photosynthesis, its meanings and its implications, and of Mapping Mars: Science, Imagination and the Birth of a World.

2:45 PM

Space junk: Clean-up time

Industry and government have a robust financial incentive to launch satellites, but considerably less motivation to clean up the debris. It is a classic “tragedy of the commons,” in which many individuals benefit from a collective resource but no one has an incentive to bear the cost of maintaining it. This is humanity’s hardest-to-reach rubbish: the spent rocket stages, inert satellites and other debris that have been collecting above Earth since Sputnik ushered in the space age. The United States’ Air Force Space Command is tracking around 22,000 pieces of man-made space debris, mostly bigger than 10 cm across, and there are estimated to be hundreds of thousands more smaller fragments. What are the hazards of an orbiting junkyard of cast-off space debris? Who can profit from being space’s trash collector?

Nobu Okada

Founder and chief executive, Astroscale

Nobu Okada

Founder and chief executive, Astroscale

Nobu Okada founded ASTROSCALE in Singapore in 2013 due to a strong desire to address the growing threat of space debris. He used his personal funds as seed money and hired a team in Singapore and Tokyo while raising capital for the business. The team calls themselves, “Space Sweepers” and their mission is to secure space flight safety by incubating space debris removal technologies.

Mr. Okada serves as a member of the Subcommittee on Space Civil Use and Space Industry at the Cabinet Office for the Government of Japan, and is also a member of The Future of Space Technologies Council, World Economic Forum, and International Astronautical Federation.

Prior to ASTROSCALE, Mr. Okada was a Japanese IT entrepreneur and strategy consultant, and had managed IT companies in Japan, China, India and Singapore. He led one company to a successful IPO. Before joining the IT industry, he worked for McKinsey & Company and the Japanese Government in the Ministry of Finance. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Genetics from the University of Tokyo in 1995 and an MBA from the Krannert School of Business, Purdue University in 2001.

When he was a teenager, Mr. Okada attended a camp at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in the United States where he met Japan’s first astronaut, Mr. Mamoru Mohri. He received the handwritten message, “Space is where you will thrive.” and he has been inspired to work on space ever since.

Jamie Morin

Jamie Morin is the executive director of the Center for Space Policy and Strategy, as well as a vice-president of The Aerospace Corporation. Aerospace is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing technical advice on all aspects of space missions, especially for U.S. national security and civil space agencies. The Center was established to provide trusted, non-advocate perspectives on space policy and strategy, drawing on Aerospace’s deep technical expertise to ensure that space policy decisions are fully informed and well-grounded in fact.

Prior to joining Aerospace, Jamie served for eight years in multiple senior positions with the Department of Defense. Most recently, he was the director of cost assessment and program evaluation, assisting the U.S. Secretary of Defense by creating the Department’s 5 year resource plan, leading independent cost estimates of major acquisition programs and conducting numerous multiple special studies, including two space strategic portfolio reviews. Previously, he served as assistant secretary and chief financial officer for the U.S. Air Force, overseeing a more than $110 billion annual budget. In 2012 and 2013 he simultaneously served as the acting under secretary of the Air Force, the chief management officer for a nearly 700,000-person organization as well as the chair of the Air Force Space Board. Prior to service with the Air Force, he was the senior analyst for the defense and intelligence budgets at the U.S. Senate Budget Committee, and earlier an economist and strategist with an international consulting firm.

Jamie holds degrees from Yale, the London School of Economics, and Georgetown. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and in 2013 was named a “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum.

Saadia Pekkanen

Associate director, Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington

Saadia Pekkanen

Associate director, Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington

Saadia M. Pekkanen works on outer space security, governance, and policy. Her regional expertise is in the international relations of Japan/Asia. She earned Master’s degrees from Columbia University and Yale Law School, and a doctorate from Harvard University in political science. She holds the Job and Gertrud Tamaki Professorship at the University of Washington. She has published a half-dozen books on space technology and geopolitics, and is working now on The Age of Newspace. She serves as Co-Chair of the U.S. Japan Space Forum, and directs both the Space Security Initiative (SSI) and the project on Emerging Frontiers in Newspace. She is a contributor for Forbes on the space industry.

Oliver Morton

Briefings editor, The Economist

Oliver Morton

Briefings editor, The Economist

Oliver Morton is The Economist's briefings editor. Before coming to The Economist as energy and environment editor in 2009, he was the chief news and features editor of Nature, the international scientific journal. He specialises in the energy business, climate science and policy, and other green issues. He is the author of Eating the Sun: How Plants Power the Planet, a study of photosynthesis, its meanings and its implications, and of Mapping Mars: Science, Imagination and the Birth of a World.

3:30 PM

Afternoon networking break

4:00 PM

Moon, Mars or Neither: What will Elon Musk see from his deathbed 100 years from now? A Three way debate.

Is Musk’s Martian fantasy at all possible? What about Asteroid mining? Should we be going back to Moon? Will spaceships be capable of carrying a hundred or more passengers to the Red Planet, landing, then returning to Earth to pick up more? Is it feasible to go to Mars and start a new of a civilization by 2030? And will a slew of new technologies: gigantic, reusable rockets; carbon fiber fuel tanks; ultra-powered engines cut it? This far-future interactive session will pit three diverse debaters in a war of words. Are we headed to the moon, to Mars or to the asteroid belt?

Naveen Jain

Founder and chairman, Moon Express

Naveen Jain

Founder and chairman, Moon Express

Naveen Jain is an entrepreneur and philanthropist driven to solve the world’s biggest challenges and epidemics through innovation. His passion lies in discovering the newest technologies and turning them into successful businesses that will have a global impact and help improve the lives of millions.

To date, he has founded several companies which are revolutionizing the science, technology and medicine arenas. They include Bluedot, Moon Express, Viome, Intelius, Talent Wise and InfoSpace. 2017 is a big year for two of Naveen’s companies; Moon Express and Viome.

Moon Express is the first and only private entity to receive permission from the US government to leave earth’s orbit and land on the moon. This year they will complete their maiden lunar voyage. Viome will launch in 2017 and is focused on disrupting healthcare by “making illness optional.”

Naveen is known for his entrepreneurial spirit and believes that it is entrepreneurs who will catapult our industries forward. He is a trustee of the board and vision circle member at the XPRIZE Foundation where he is focused on finding entrepreneurial solutions to address the biggest global challenges in health, education, women empowerment, agriculture, and energy. He recently launched a million-dollar Women Safety XPRIZE to empower women around the world.

In addition, Naveen is also on the board of Singularity University and has been awarded many honors for his accomplishments and entrepreneurial successes.

Chris Lewicki

President and chief executive, Planetary Resources

Chris Lewicki

President and chief executive, Planetary Resources

Mr. Lewicki has been intimately involved with the lifecycle of NASA’s Mars Exploration Rovers and the Phoenix Mars Lander.

Lewicki performed system engineering development and participated in assembly, test and launch operations for both Mars missions. He was flight director for the rovers Spirit and Opportunity, and the surface mission manager for Phoenix. The recipient of two NASA Exceptional Achievement Medals, Lewicki has an asteroid named in his honor: 13609 Lewicki. Chris holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Arizona.

At Planetary Resources, Mr. Lewicki is responsible for the strategic development of the company’s mission and vision, engagement with customers and the scientific community, serves as technical compass, and leads day to day operations.

John Logsdon

Founder, George Washington University’s Space Policy Institute

John Logsdon

Founder, George Washington University’s Space Policy Institute

Dr. Logsdon is professor emeritus of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, where he was on the active faculty for 38 years. He was the founder in 1987 and long-time director of GW’s Space Policy Institute. He has also been a faculty member of the International Space University since 1989. He holds a B.S. in Physics from Xavier University (1960) and a Ph.D. in Political Science from New York University (1970). Dr. Logsdon’s research interests focus on the policy and historical aspects of U.S. and international space activities. He is author of the award winning books After Apollo? Richard Nixon and the American Space Program (2015) and John F. Kennedy and the Race to the Moon (2010). and is general editor of the multi-volume series Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in the History of the U.S. Civil Space Program. He has written numerous articles and reports on space policy and history. He is frequently consulted by the electronic and print media for his views on space issues. He is a member of the board of directors of The Planetary Society and former member of the NASA Advisory Council. In 2008-2009 he held the Lindbergh Chair at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

Tom Standage

Deputy editor, The Economist

Tom Standage

Deputy editor, The Economist

Tom Standage is the deputy editor at of The Economist. He is also responsible for the newspaper's digital strategy and the development of new digital products, including Espresso and Economist Films. He is also the author of six history books, including Writing on the Wall (2013), A History of the World in 6 Glasses (2005) and The Victorian Internet (1998). He studied engineering and computing at Oxford University and has written for other publications including the New York Times, Daily Telegraph, Guardian and Wired, taking a particular interest in the internet's cultural and historical significance. He joined The Economist as science correspondent in 1998 and was subsequently appointed technology editor, business editor and digital editor.

4:45 PM

Spotlight interview

On interstellar missions, nano-starships and the next big leap into the cosmos

Yuri Milner

Founder, DST Global

Yuri Milner

Founder, DST Global

Yuri founded Mail.ru Group in 1999 and under his leadership it became one of Europe’s leading internet companies. He took that business public in 2010 and founded DST Global to focus on global internet investments. DST Global became one of the world’s leading technology investors and its portfolio has included some of the world's most prominent internet companies, such as Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Snapchat, Airbnb, Spotify, Alibaba, and others. Yuri lives in Silicon Valley with his family.

Yuri graduated in 1985 with an advanced degree in theoretical physics and subsequently conducted research in quantum field theory. Yuri and his wife Julia, together with Sergey Brin and Anne Wojcicki, Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, launched the Breakthrough Prizes - the world’s largest scientific awards, honoring important, primarily recent, achievements in Fundamental Physics, Life Sciences and Mathematics. In July 2015, together with Stephen Hawking, Yuri launched the $100 million Breakthrough Listen initiative to reinvigorate the search for extraterrestrial intelligence in the Universe, and in April 2016 they launched Breakthrough Starshot - a $100 million research and engineering program seeking to develop a technology for interstellar travel.

Oliver Morton

Briefings editor, The Economist

Oliver Morton

Briefings editor, The Economist

Oliver Morton is The Economist's briefings editor. Before coming to The Economist as energy and environment editor in 2009, he was the chief news and features editor of Nature, the international scientific journal. He specialises in the energy business, climate science and policy, and other green issues. He is the author of Eating the Sun: How Plants Power the Planet, a study of photosynthesis, its meanings and its implications, and of Mapping Mars: Science, Imagination and the Birth of a World.

5:15 PM

Closing remarks

5:20 PM

Cocktail reception

Venue

The Museum of Flight is a private non-profit air and space museum in the northwest United States. It is conveniently located at the southern end of King County International Airport, in the city of Tukwila, just south of Seattle.

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We are offering discounted room rates at the Seattle Marriott Airport Hotelfor this conference. If you would like to reserve a room at a discounted rate, please use the below link to create and manage your hotel reservation:

Museum of Flight

Sponsors

Founding sponsor

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company

Hewlett Packard Enterprise is a global technology leader focused on developing intelligent solutions that allow customers to capture, analyze and act upon data seamlessly from edge to core to cloud. HPE enables customers to accelerate business outcomes by driving new business models, creating new customer and employee experiences, and increasing operational efficiency today and into the future.

Supporting organisation

Space Angels

Space Angels is the leading source of capital for space startups. Over the past 10 years, Space Angels has invested in many of the most prominent startups in the sector." You may also find some useful information in our new media kit: http://spaceangels.com/media

Supporting organisation

Satnews Publishers

Satnews Publishers is a leading provider of satellite news, publications, research and other satellite industry information in both commercial and military enterprises worldwide. Satnews offers a range of products and services to satellite professionals, including free daily news and magazines. For a full list of our free publications please visit: http://www.satnews.com

Supporting organisation

Space Frontier Foundation

Founded in 1988, the Space Frontier Foundation is a leading 501(c) 3 non-profit organization committed to opening the space frontier to human settlement through the power of free enterprise. The Space Frontier Foundation forges cross-industry relationships, drives public engagement and advocates governmental support through special projects, events and strategic congressional campaigns to build a thriving space economy. The Space Frontier Foundation is the host and organizer of the NewSpace Conference, a ten-year running event that brings together entrepreneurs, investors, scientists, engineers and policy leaders to advance the commercial space industry. For more information, please visit www.spacefrontier.org.

Supporting organisation

The MIT Astropreneurship and Space Industry Club

The MIT Astropreneurship and Space Industry Club is where the nation's leading engineering and entrepreneurial communities meet to promote the next innovations in the burgeoning space industry. The organization hosts the annual MIT New Space Age Conference, a premier forum and platform for leaders and supporters of the 'New Space' industry

Supporting organisation

Satellite Finance

SatelliteFinance provides exclusive perspective and information on the critical business issues impacting the commercial satellite industry; from operators through to antenna and satellite manufacturers, launch providers, insurers, and investors.We provide extensive global coverage of complex transactions in the private and public equity and debt capital markets, mergers & acquisitions, and corporate strategy.Our subscribers include chief financial officers, heads of corporate development, investment bankers, lawyers, consultants, and capital providers who rely on SatelliteFinance for insights on the critical financial and strategic aspects of the industry.A subscription to SatelliteFinance includes the print edition, weekly email edition, and access to the full online collection.

Supporting organisation

GeekWire

GeekWire is a fast-growing national technology news site with strong roots in the Pacific Northwest and a large audience of loyal, tech-savvy readers around the globe. GeekWire informs, entertains, connects and inspires the smartest people on the planet.

Supporting organisation

Media Art Xploration

Supporting organisation

The University of Chicago Booth Aeronautics and Space Club

The University of Chicago Booth Aeronautics and Space Club educates top MBA students on the continuing developments in the space industry and promotes the entrepreneurial efforts of companies shaping the growing space economy. The University of Chicago Booth School of Business leverages its background in entrepreneurship, finance and investing, as well as its affiliation with leading research facilities to further the objective of developing a self-sustaining privatized space market.

Supporting organisation

Space.com

Space.com is the premier source of space exploration, innovation and astronomy news, chronicling (and celebrating) humanity’s ongoing expansion across the final frontier. We transport our visitors across the solar system and beyond through accessible, comprehensive coverage of the latest news and discoveries. Subscribe to Space.com for the latest out-of-this-world news.

Supporting organisation

Systima Technologies, Inc.

Systima Technologies, Inc. (Systima) is a premier manufacturer of qualified energetic systems and components, and complex integrated systems supporting the Defense, Space, and Commercial Markets. Systima is a small, non-traditional business that is industry-recognized for qualified design, rapid response, and low cost solutions.

Speaking opportunities

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